🔥 AOC Endorses AIPAC-Linked Candidate, Adelita Grijalva, While Voting for Israel Military Aid
How a rising Latina politician's AIPAC ties expose the hollow core of celebrity progressivism
😽 Keepin’ It Simple Summary for Younger Readers
👧🏾✊🏾👦🏾
A politician named Adelita Grijalva is running for Congress in Arizona with support from famous progressives like AOC 🇺🇸 and Bernie Sanders 🌟.
But years ago, she made a video for a powerful group called AIPAC 🏛️ saying that supporting Israel 🇮🇱 is part of being Latino 🇲🇽—even though Israel has been accused of treating Palestinian people 🇵🇸 very badly, similar to how Indigenous and Latino communities have been treated throughout history ⏳.
At the same time, AOC voted to keep sending $500 million 💰 to help Israel's military, even though many progressives think this money helps hurt innocent people 🕊️.
This shows how even politicians who say they fight for justice ⚖️ sometimes support things that contradict their values when it comes to other countries, especially when powerful lobbying groups are involved 🤔.
🗝️ Takeaways
🎪 AOC endorsed Adelita Grijalva despite Grijalva's starring role in AIPAC propaganda videos declaring support for Israel a "Latino value."
💸 The same week AOC voted against cutting $500 million in military aid to Israel (422-6 vote), reinforcing her contradictory stance on "progressive" foreign policy
🎬 Grijalva participated in AIPAC's targeted Latino outreach after taking a sponsored trip to Israel, then wouldn't clearly state positions on arms sales due to political fears
🔄 The candidate who sounds like Trump on Middle East policy while collecting endorsements from Bernie Sanders and AOC exposes progressive politics' AIPAC capture
🌍 Arizona's 7th District—majority Latino and border community that understands occupation—is being represented by someone who literally advocates for another settler colonial project
When Progressive Politics Meet Genocide Lobbyists: The Adelita Grijalva-AOC Contradiction
Desde las fronteras del sur de Arizona, where contradictions bloom like desert wildflowers after a storm...
As we navigate another chapter of the Trump Era—that seemingly endless nightmare where basic human decency goes to die—we find ourselves confronting uncomfortable truths about our progressive heroes. The latest chapter?
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's high-profile endorsement of Adelita Grijalva for Arizona's 7th Congressional District, even as Grijalva's own participation in AIPAC propaganda videos raises serious questions about the intersection of progressive politics and genocide complicity.
The Desert Politician's Dilemma
Adelita Grijalva—hija of the late Congressman Raúl Grijalva, a genuine progressive champion who spent decades fighting for nuestra gente—now finds herself at the center of a political maelstrom that exposes the contradictions within progressive politics.
She won the Democratic primary on July 15 in a landslide, securing endorsements from heavyweight progressives including AOC and Bernie Sanders. But here's where the story gets more complicated than a telenovela plot twist.
After taking a visit to Israel, Grijalva participated in AIPAC's "Latino Story" video, declaring that "For us, supporting Israel is not just a Jewish value. It is the Latino value. It is an American value."
¿En serio? Since when did supporting an apartheid state become part of our cultura? Our people know what it's like to have our land stolen, our children separated, our communities militarized. We know ocupación when we see it.
The AOC Endorsement: Progressive Credentials or Political Theater?
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's endorsement came with all the typical progressive language about fighting for working families and climate justice.
But here's what makes this endorsement particularly troubling: it comes at the same time that AOC voted AGAINST cutting $500 million in military aid to Israel's air defense systems, including the Iron Dome.
The vote wasn't even close—422 to 6—with AOC firmly in the camp of maintaining funding for Israel's military apparatus.
This is the same AOC who once cried over her "present" vote on Iron Dome funding, demonstrating the emotional complexity of the issue: “In a letter to her constituents, Ocasio-Cortez wrote that she opposed the bill but abstained from voting.”
Yet when push came to shove, she chose to maintain the status quo of unconditional military support.
The Contradiction Factory: Progressive Posturing Meets Genocide Reality
Here's what we're really talking about, mi gente.
While Grijalva campaigns on progressive values—appearing at rallies with AOC and Bernie Sanders—she won't clearly state her position on arms sales to Israel. According to Jewish Insider reporting, Grijalva has "struggled to articulate her approach to Israel" and suggested in a Zoom call with Progressive Democrats of America that speaking candidly about her views could draw outside spending from pro-Israel advocacy groups into the race.
¿Ósea qué? She's afraid to speak honestly about genocide because it might hurt her politically, but she's perfectly comfortable starring in AIPAC propaganda videos that help normalize said genocide?
🎬 Bought and Paid For: How Adelita Grijalva Became AIPAC's Genocide Spokesperson
After taking a visit to Israel, Grijalva participated in AIPAC's "Latino Story" video, declaring that "For us, supporting Israel is not just a Jewish value. It is the Latino value. It is an American value."
The Numbers Don't Lie
Since October 7, 2023, more than 62,000 Palestinian people have been killed by Israel's military—a number that surpasses all American soldiers killed during the entire 20-year Vietnam War. Meanwhile, Grijalva's hometown of Tucson is home to Raytheon, which manufactures weapons used in this slaughter.
The cognitive dissonance is deafening.
AOC's justifications for maintaining defensive aid funding—distinguishing between "defensive" and "offensive" systems—ring hollow when those same defensive systems enable more aggressive military action by creating a sense of security for civilian populations. AOC argues that systems like the Iron Dome "save civilian lives", but this logic ignores how these systems function within a broader apparatus of occupation and apartheid.
The AIPAC Machine: Buying Silence, One Latino at a Time
AIPAC's educational arm has spent millions ferrying members of Congress to Israel—upward of $10,000 per person for carefully curated eight-day trips that present a very specific narrative. These aren't educational exchanges; they're propaganda tours with mariachi music.
Grijalva took one of these trips.
Then she starred in their promotional video, describing standing in a bomb shelter with a mother and daughter, crying tears of solidarity, and having what can only be described as a political awakening wrapped in humanitarian packaging. The video represents something more insidious than simple political pandering—it's the cooption of Latino identity in service of legitimizing apartheid.
The Progressive Squeeze Play
Here's how the machine works, raza.
Progressive credentials get you the endorsements and the energy—AOC, Bernie, the environmental groups, the Latino Victory Fund. However, when it comes to foreign policy that actually matters, everyone suddenly becomes very quiet about international law and human rights.
Grijalva appears at rallies with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders but won't clearly state her position on arms sales to Israel. This is the squeeze play, hermanos.
This is how the machine works.
The AOC Defense Strategy: Defensive Aid for an Offensive Regime
According to the documentation provided, AOC's justifications for supporting Israel's air defense funding rest on several arguments:
Distinguishing Defensive from Offensive Aid: She argues that systems like the Iron Dome are "purely defensive" and "save civilian lives."
Concerns Over Legislative Process: She calls for more oversight and transparency
Maintaining Diplomatic Leverage: She suggests that aid should encourage diplomatic solutions
But these distinctions collapse under scrutiny. There's no such thing as "defensive" aid to an apartheid regime. Every dollar that goes to Israel's military—whether for offense or defense—enables more aggression by freeing up other resources and providing political cover for continued occupation.
The Tucson Context: Where Progressive Politics Go to Die
Arizona's 7th Congressional District is one of the nation's most Latino-populated congressional jurisdictions, home to a majority Latino population, large immigrant communities, and a vibrant bilingual electorate. These are communities that understand displacement, that know what military occupation looks like, that have experienced the violence of border militarization.
Yet here we have their potential representative literally starring in propaganda videos for the organization that spends millions ensuring continued military aid to an apartheid state. The irony would be laughable if it weren't so tragic.
The Trump Connection: When Democrats Sound Like Republicans
Here's where it gets truly cabrón in all the wrong ways:
Everything Grijalva says in defense of her position—calling for peace, advocating for ceasefires, demanding hostage releases, even criticizing Netanyahu—sounds exactly like what Donald Trump has been saying. Word for word, talking point for talking point.
This is what happens when progressive politics get co-opted by the genocide lobby. You end up with candidates who sound like Trump on foreign policy while collecting endorsements from AOC and Bernie Sanders. It's political whiplash at its finest.
Indigenous Wisdom in a Colonized Landscape
As Indigenous peoples of this land—pueblos originarios who understand the long arc of colonization—we recognize the patterns. The same logic that justified the theft of our lands, the destruction of our communities, and the separation of our families now gets repackaged as "democratic values" and "shared interests" between settler colonial projects.
When Grijalva declares that supporting Israel is a "Latino value," she's not just betraying Palestinian solidarity—she's betraying our own history of resistance against colonization.
Our abuelas and abuelos, who fled violence, who crossed borders, who built lives in the face of systemic oppression, would not recognize their struggles in the Zionist project.
The AOC Disappointment: When Progressives Choose Empire
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's vote against cutting military aid to Israel—while simultaneously endorsing candidates with histories of AIPAC collaboration—represents everything wrong with contemporary progressive politics.
It's the politics of aesthetics over substance, of brand management over principled positions.
AOC's justifications reveal the intellectual gymnastics required to maintain progressive credentials while supporting an apartheid regime. Her distinction between "defensive" and "offensive" aid would be laughable if the stakes weren't so high. Tell that distinction to the families in Gaza whose children have been killed by "defensive" actions enabled by American weapons right here in Adelita’s hometown of Tucson, home to Raytheon Missiles.
What This Means for Nuestra Comunidad
For those of us living in the borderlands, watching this political theater unfold, the implications are clear. The same progressive politicians who claim to fight for immigrant rights, who oppose border militarization, who speak eloquently about indigenous sovereignty, suddenly get very quiet when it comes to Palestinian liberation.
This isn't about foreign policy—it's about the coherence of our political values. You cannot simultaneously oppose occupation here while supporting it there. You cannot fight settler colonialism on this continent while funding it on another.
The Grijalva-AOC alliance represents the capture of progressive politics by empire. It shows how even our most principled leaders can be co-opted by the very systems they claim to oppose.
Beyond Electoral Politics: Building Real Resistance
The Trump Era has taught us many things, but perhaps the most important lesson is this: electoral politics alone will never liberate us. Whether it's Trump's overt fascism or Democrats' performative progressivism, the machine of empire keeps grinding.
Real change comes from the grassroots, from communities organizing together, from movements that understand the connections between local and global struggles. It comes from Indigenous communities protecting sacred sites like Oak Flat, from immigrant rights activists challenging detention centers, from environmental justice fighters opposing extractive industries.
A Note of Hope and Action
Despite the disappointments and contradictions, hay esperanza. The fact that these discussions are happening, that progressive politicians feel pressure to address their positions on Palestine, that young people especially are demanding accountability—all of this represents progress.
The movement for Palestinian liberation is growing, connecting with struggles for Indigenous sovereignty, immigrant rights, and environmental justice. Every time someone like Grijalva has to explain their AIPAC video, every time AOC has to justify their vote for military aid, the contradictions become more visible.
Here's how you can get involved:
Stay Informed: Subscribe to Three Sonorans Substack to keep up with analysis that connects local and global struggles
Support Local Organizations: Connect with groups like LUCHA, Coalición de Derechos Humanos, and No More Deaths that are doing the real work of community defense
Pressure Representatives: Demand clear positions on military aid to Israel from all elected officials
Build Connections: Link struggles for Palestinian liberation with local fights for Indigenous sovereignty and immigrant rights
Educate and Organize: Share information about the connections between local militarization and global empire
What questions do you have about the connections between local progressive politics and international solidarity? How do you think communities can hold their representatives accountable when electoral choices feel limited? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!
The path forward requires us to think beyond electoral politics, to build movements that can't be co-opted by AIPAC or any other lobbying group. It requires us to remember that our liberation is connected—todos somos pueblo.
¡La lucha continúa!
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Some people think they can straddle the fence. Sadly, with Zionist genocide, there are only two possibilities. One is either in favor of it or opposed. However, MANY politicians are worried about all that AIPAC money...
Move on! Yeah, I remember you supported Jill Stein. Your enemy is not Adelita Grijalva.!